Please see below the 2019 / 2020 course descriptions:
Course Descriptions
International Civil Litigation in U.S. Courts (2 credits)
Professor: Kevin McElroy; Hofstra Law School
Syllabus – To Be Updated
Description: The expansion of international trade and investment in recent years has greatly increased the significance of civil litigation involving foreign parties and transactions in U.S. courts. Such litigation raises concerns not usually present in civil litigation between domestic parties: the application of international and foreign law, the proper role of courts in resolving disputes that might affect foreign policy, and the possibility of conflict between state and federal regulation of foreign commerce. In addressing these concerns, courts have attempted to balance competing domestic and foreign interests and to minimize judicial intrusion in foreign affairs.
This course examines selected topics in international civil litigation and determines how successful the courts have been. Topics include jurisdiction of U.S. courts over foreign defendants, service of process abroad, forum selection, gathering of evidence abroad, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, extraterritorial application of U.S. law, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.
Comparative Criminal Law (2 credits)
Professor: Michele Nethercott; UB School of Law
Professor Michele Nethercott is the director of the University of Baltimore Innocence Project Clinic and a graduate of Northeastern University Law School and Sarah Lawrence College. In the past 15 years she has represented numerous clients who were exonerated on the basis of post-conviction DNA testing evidence and other forms of newly discovered evidence.
She began her career as a trial attorney with the Office of the Public Defender for the State of Maryland in 1988 and has handled numerous felony trials, including several death penalty cases. She created and operated a Forensics Division in the Office of the Public Defender in the early 1990s and has served as the co-chair of the Forensics Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). She is an expert on DNA and various other forms of scientific evidence and has lectured on this topic around the country and published articles in NACDL‘s Champion on the topic.
Nethercott has taught a seminar course on Wrongful Convictions, a course on comparative criminal procedure at Haifa University, and has taught at the Post-Conviction Clinic at the University Of Maryland School Of Law. She is currently on the faculty of the Judicial College of Maryland and provides ongoing training to Maryland judges on issues related to scientific evidence.
Syllabus – To Be Updated
Description: This is course will explore selected topics in substantive criminal law and criminal procedure, including a comparison of adversarial and inquisitorial approaches to criminal adjudication. The course examines the policy concerns underlying different doctrinal approaches to criminal procedure, criminal sanctions and substantive criminal law and requires students to critically assess approaches taken in different countries. Topics covered include criminal procedure, theories of crime and punishment, codification, constitutional principles, and the role of religious and indigenous law in criminal adjudications systems.